1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a graphene-based porous membrane can be used as a reverse osmosis membrane, a forward osmosis membrane, a microfiltration membrane, an ultrafiltration membrane and a nanofiltration membrane by controlling pore size, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Water shortage becomes a severe problem all over the world due to global warming, climate change, environmental pollution, and the like. Since the vast majority of water on the earth is seawater, seawater desalination technology is becoming increasingly important as a means for solving water shortage problems.
Seawater desalination methods are mainly classified into an evaporation method and a reverse osmosis method. Since the evaporation method requires higher energy consumption than other desalination methods, the reverse osmosis method is most widely employed.
The reverse osmosis method is a process of desalinating seawater by applying pressure to a semipermeable membrane and has a problem of increase in energy consumption resulting therefrom. Thus, the reverse osmosis method is more costly than typical methods for producing drinking water.
Since reverse osmosis-related techniques have already considerably been optimized, it is difficult to significantly reduce energy consumption.
Therefore, there is a need for a high-performance reverse osmosis membrane capable of replacing typical polymeric reverse osmosis membranes.
In addition, there is a need for a membrane which is formed of a physically, chemically stable material so as to reduce process costs and improve process efficiency.
Further, there is a need for a membrane fabrication method which can fabricate membranes having various pore sizes depending on materials to be removed.